“Many times he would offend the fans and he wouldn’t mean to offend them. He just meant to say he invested in a business and he didn’t want to lose money. They were thinking short term and he was thinking long term. From that way, he was (misunderstood).”

There are definitely parallels between the late Bill Wirtz, the long-time owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk.

But the Blackhawks transition from a laughing stock into one of the model NHL franchises in the past decade – drafting and developing well, surrounding the young talent with the proper veterans, hiring experts who grasped the uniqueness of the city’s sports marketplace and restoring trust with a declining season-ticket base — also provides some hope the Senators can regroup to one day become an elite franchise.

Let’s first take you back to the early 2000s, when the senior Wirtz was running the Blackhawks show.

The fan base was demoralized by a series of unpopular, cost-cutting, on-ice decisions going back for years, including the loss of stars Ed Belfour, Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte.

Wirtz further alienated the Blackhawks base by refusing to allow home games to be televised.

Short on big-name talent, the team was generally uncompetitive, causing yet another hit to attendance. At one point, the season-ticket base was estimated at around 5,000, ahead of only the Phoenix Coyotes. In 2006-07, the Blackhawks averaged 12,727 fans per game, 29th out of 30 NHL teams.

Front-office staff and ticket agents were chopped in more cost-cutting measures and a strained relationship developed with the alumni, including some of the greatest players in franchise history.

Wirtz was the subject of loud local criticism, which gained national and international attention. In 2004, ESPN dubbed the Blackhawks the worst franchise in professional sports.

After Wirtz died of cancer and the Blackhawks asked for a moment of silence at a game in October 2007, many fans chose to boo.

It was a sad state of affairs for a once-proud organization that had not won the Stanley Cup since 1961.

Then came the incredible rise to the top as the Blackhawks stickhandled their way out of the darkness.

On the ice, the Blackhawks built around the dynamic core of young players they had drafted, including Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. Rocky Wirtz recognized the need to front the management team with someone well-versed in the city’s sports marketplace, bringing in former Chicago Cubs president and Chicago resident John McDonough as Blackhawks CEO and president.

What a difference a decade makes. The Blackhawks have since spent to the salary cap to surround their core players to create the right mix. The games were on TV and, as we all know, Chicago went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015, selling out night after night. The Blackhawks topped the NHL attendance charts again this season, averaging 21,653 fans per game.

Now, Ottawa is not Chicago, of course. But as the Senators embark on a rebuilding phase, the Blackhawks do serve as an ideal blueprint for what can be done in relatively short order.

Senators fans can relate to many of the former problems in Chicago, but turnarounds like what happened in the Windy City take time, effort, money and a willingness to accept new ideas and to listen to new voices.

We know that Melnyk isn’t particularly fond of the media these days, but he did hear directly from season-ticket holders in three town hall meetings earlier this week.

They are effectively the chief shareholders in that they help pay the bills by buying seats. Or, alternatively, not paying the bills if they choose to stay away because they don’t like what they see.

Opening the doors to them was a positive step. For the sake of the long-term stability of the franchise, we hope Melnyk listened closely to the positives and negatives. Understanding the fan base is vital if he wants to turn casual fans into season-ticket holders and non-fans into casual fans.

If cutting parking lot prices was the primary issue for fans – Melnyk said so in the town halls – good on the owner for making the change and giving some change back to the customers.

Melnyk also made a wise public-relations move by naming Chris Neil an alumni ambassador, joining Chris Phillips in the position. During their playing days, Neil and Phillips gave everything they had to the organization – on and off the ice – and fans have deep respect for both.

As for the return of the only other Senator to have played 1,000 games for the organization?

Repairing the damage that has seen Daniel Alfredsson leave the organization twice (once as a player, once as a member of management) is a different matter altogether.

Will Alfredsson ever come back to a Melnyk-run operation? Probably not.

But if there was one signature way for Melnyk to signal that he could swallow his pride, it would be recognize just how important Alfredsson’s voice is in the community. It might ultimately mean giving up a bit of his business, but for evidence of what the long-time captain could bring, all the owner needed to do was listen to the season-ticket holders’ reaction when Alfredsson’s departures were brought up.

Along those same lines, Melnyk would also regain the trust of fans if he appointed a president and/or CEO with deep roots in the Ottawa sports community. That, too, came up during the town halls. Melnyk has talked over and over again about the unique problems the Senators face. Hiring someone with extensive experience working within that environment makes sense.

It is a tricky fan base to figure out, to be sure. We can understand the frustration of the owner when he saw empty seats during the Senators’ long playoff run in 2017, but fans have also been frustrated watching a stream of popular players being traded away in money moves.

It has become a vicious cycle, with one of the most significant decisions in franchise history looming. Will Erik Karlsson be happy enough with what he sees — financially and otherwise — to stay here long-term?

What has happened here before and what Karlsson perceives the future to look like will play a major role in what he decides. It would be a crushing blow to the organization if he leaves, but the Senators have ideas about where they would go without him.

One of those plans, which Melnyk is ultimately in control of, should be about creating an environment in which the next wave of star players doesn’t even want to think about the possibility of leaving.

It was like that here more than a decade ago. In many ways, Chicago was where the Senators were more than a decade ago.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.